Merritt Parkway Bridge

From Westport Public Art Collections

Howard Heath (created by)

circa 1936 – 1938 (Date manufactured/created)

Watercolor on rag paper

Watercolor, Whatman rag paper

15 1/2 inches H X 22 1/2 inches W
22 inches H X 29 inches W

Watercolor on Whatman paper, c. 1936-38. This watercolor of the Cross Highway Overpass (completed in 1938) near the Westport and Fairfield border may be part of a series of eleven watercolor paintings by Howard Heath documenting the construction of the Merrit Parkway (a federally sponsored Depression-era project). Working under the auspices of the WPA, Heath began his watercolors of the parkway project, in 1935.  According to the Connecticut State Library newsletter in 2008 on the 60th anniversary of the opening of the first fourteen miles of the Parkway, the works were displayed at the Stamford Town Hall in 1938; "After that, no one knows what happened to the series." Another of Heath's Merritt Parkway views was discovered around 2008 and is now in the collection of the Connecticut Historical Society.  Heath executed several works for the WPA of Westport, including the murals "Westport Organized" (1935) and "Administration of a Community" (1936).

Gift of the Gault Family Companies, 2021.

Accession/ID Number 1935